8. Magic Veggies

8 Magic Veggies Everybody was sad that nothing was growing in our garden. It looked like Emily was going to cry, as usual. I guess we're just terrible gardeners. "You kids need to be patient," Miss Nichol kept telling us.

"Why should I be patient?" I replied. "I'm not sick." But the next morning, the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. We went outside to check on the garden, like we did every day. Miss Nichol wasn't at school yet, but Mr. Tony was watering the garden with a hose. And you'll never believe what we found out there. VEGGIES! Yes! The garden was filled with veggies! Big tomatoes and zucchinis and cucumbers and lots of other veggies I couldn't name because I don't eat that stuff. There were even some bananas. It was amazing! They grew suddenly, out of nowhere! And they were fully grown, and all over the garden! "Yee-haw!" we all shouted. "Ya-hoo!" Everybody was buzzing.* "Isn't this wonderful?" asked Mr. Tony. "We can eat some of these veggies for lunch today!" said Ryan, who will eat anything. We picked the veggies and put them into bags that Mr. Tony gave us.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Andrea suddenly shouted. "I don't think these veggies grew in our garden."

"What makes you think that?" asked Michael. "They have price tags on them," said Andrea. WHAT?! Andrea was right! She showed us a tomato with a little tag on it that said "3 for $1." "Somebody bought these veggies in a store!" Andrea shouted. "They put them in the garden so we would think we grew them ourselves!" WHAT?! Who would do a thing like that? Andrea looked at Emily. Emily looked at Michael. Michael looked at Alexia. Alexia looked at me. I looked at Neil. Neil looked at Andrea. Everybody was looking at everybody else. Finally, Mr. Tony turned off the hose and stepped forward. "It was me," he said sadly. "Gasp!" we all gasped.

"I admit it," said Mr. Tony. "I was at the supermarket last night and I bought those veggies." "Why?" asked Andrea. "I was so disappointed that your seeds weren't sprouting," Mr. Tony said. "And you kids looked so sad." "It's okay," said Alexia, patting Mr. Tony on the back. "You were only trying to make us feel better."

At that moment, Miss Nichol arrived on her tractor, wearing a T-shirt that said I WET MY PLANTS on it. Well, the tractor wasn't wearing the T-shirt. She was. You can't fit a T-shirt on a tractor. "What's up, y'all?" Miss Nichol asked as she hopped off the tractor. "Mr. Tony bought veggies at the supermarket," said Neil. "He put them in the garden so we would think we grew them." "Mr. Tony is full of baloney," I added. "I'm sorry," said Mr. Tony, hanging his head. That's when the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. I'm not going to tell you what it was. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. But you have to read the next chapter. So nah-nah-nah boo-boo on you.